girls just want to have fun
by walkingonempty
Summary: Kushina and Mikoto are on a genin team, and shenanigans happen. Kushina/Mikoto, on hiatus.


**Disclaimer:** **I don't own Naruto or any of the characters; they belong to Masashi Kishimoto. I don't get any money from this.**

 **Author notes/warnings: No warnings...umm maybe future Kushina/Mikoto and mentions of Minato/Kushina and Mikoto/Fugaku.**

In one way, in a way, they were both killed by their sons—though they both loved their sons 'til death and watched them long after their bodies had stopped. Fortunately, that is not this life.

xxxx

In the days after Uzushiogakure crumbled into sea, Kushina turned into the fire that had burned her homeland into nothing. It was not hard; Kushina's mother always told her when the sea raged roughly, she should out-howl the screaming winds and brave the storm to laugh Susanoo in the face. Kushina's mother was nothing more than a memory now, but with those words in Kushina's heart, she pushed aside her tears and laughed and _lived._

In the hours after Kushina turned their classroom to chaos, Mikoto thought her classmates were blind and incredibly stupid. The girl with the hair as red as blood was not a tomato; she was fire. Even a fool knew if you played with fire, you would get burned. Mikoto was no fool. Still, as an Uchiha, she was drawn to fire; it was her element. From a distance safe enough to avoid injury her friends were careless enough to get, Mikoto watched and wondered however did this fire-child come from the fallen kingdom of the sea.

After a week of watching, Mikoto ended up getting burned as well. This, though, was not her fault. For a genius, her fellow watcher-in-arms Minato became rather ungenius-like when it came to Kushina. He had thought it was a good idea to ask Kushina if she needed help when she was about to start to terrorize the latest bunch of bullies stupid to compare her to the hated fruit. Minato ended up getting pummeled—and Mikoto as well when she tried to help the boy. Thankfully, Mikoto managed to distract Kushina by asking her if she wanted to get Ichiraku Ramen with them before throwing dirt in her face and grabbing Minato to make their escape.

That night, Mikoto had to listen to a three-hour lecture from a disapproving Minato about how she should be kinder to the girl who was about to pound her face in since Kushina did not have parents. The next morning, Mikoto's parents shoved her out the door because a certain redhead had shown up at dawn and refused to leave until Mikoto bought her ramen. Mikoto made a mental note never to trust either of these idiots with the tile of Hokage.

xxx

When she at last had won the longed-for headband, Kushina was ecstatic. Now she could show them—she could show them all, especially her teammates. Mikoto was not that bad—just a little bit nippy like a winter breeze coming in from sea the bite at your nose. Kushina liked those breezes; they reminded her of home. What she did not like, though, was the fact that Mikoto was becoming more distant, as though she were a light on the horizon that Kushina could not catch up to . They used to spar and get ramen all the time, but now Mikoto only made time for always scowling Fugaku and her cousins. Even the girly-boy Minato who Kushina could have sworn Mikoto was in love with was shoved aside.

Mikoto had hope for her other teammate, though—Yamanaka Yoshino. She was almost as clever as Minato but was twice as vicious. Sakumo-sensei, their jounin teacher, said they were the first all-kunoichi genin team in ages. With Mikoto-teme and Inoka at her side, they could take the whole of Konoha. Girls who dreamed of being nin would stop saying they would be the next would be the next great kunoichi like the legendary Tsunade; they would say they would say they would they wanted to be the next great shinobi. Being a woman would not matter because Kushina would show them all that they were first of all shinobi, believe it!

But first, she had to Mikoto's winter breeze to stop blowing away from her and make her turn into a gale of fury that sent gusts of shruiken in face. It had been far too long since their last fight, and Kushina missed the Mikoto that would coyly throw fireballs at her head with lowered lashes when her back was turned. Now, Mikoto only looked coyly up at two-years older Fugaku with a fake smile whenever they walked back to the Uchiha compound after class. Mikoto was Kushina's long before she was Fugaku's. He didn't notice Mikoto at all until last summer when she grew curves and left childhood and Kushina behind.

Perhaps if Kushina was to flirt with Fugaku to distract him from Mikoto? He _would_ flirt back, too, because Kushina was not lying when she saw Fugaku and Minato looking when did her last spinning high kick on Minato's sensei's pervy leer. He did not seem to think that the Sexy no Jutsu was meant to be a joke—not something for his pervert books. That would show Mikoto that her precious Fugaku was a no-good, stuck-up brat, and she and Kushina would go back being to best friend, rivals, or whatever it was they were to each other. Or maybe Mikoto would become angry enough to attack her, which was just as nice because lately it had seemed as if Mikoto is looking through her. Fighting Mikoto never looked through her; when she was fighting, Mikoto looked at her opponent right in the like they were the only other thing in the world.

When she was fighting, Mikoto was like some fierce and beautiful daughter of a long-forgotten goddess, and her and Kushina's duels were like some kind of ritual celebrating the heavens above that allowed their dance. When Kushina was going to worship oncoming shruiken, she never felt more alive.

xxx

As she got older, Mikoto got more lectures.

" _Be like the spring breeze; a kunoichi must flow around her obstacles, barely touching them, yet in that one touch deadly deadly. It is good to blow on outsiders, but remember if they prove to be an obstacle, you must kill them in one touch."_

" _You have been spending too much time with outsiders, Mikoto. Remember, you are an Uchiha; it is in your blood. You should more time with your blood…unless is it that you think you are not an Uchiha?"_

" _Remember, Mikoto, before there was a village, long before there was anything, there was the Uchiha. What makes us a family is loyalty to the family—we must stay together as we always have. They say are clan if fire, Mikoto, but what is fire without air? There is no fire, Mikoto. Be the breeze; feed the fire—not those who would want to steal the fire."_

Mikoto has never questioned that she must be loyal to her family. She is an Uchiha; it is what she always has been and always will be. It the scolding—the fact others talk to her as if she isn't family now—that bothers her. These words are just sounds, and Mikoto prefers silence (unless it is Minato—his words are wise, always making Mikoto think about the whys and what-ifs—or Kushina—her words just make Mikoto want to cling on to them like they are scraps of bread and she is starving). So to stop the scolding words, Mikoto becomes the breeze, as silent and deadly as the spring sneaking up to kill the winter. Still, she misses the sound of laughter and the flash of red hair and feels with every breath she starves.

As springs come, Mikoto looks to see all the cherry blossoms. In years past, she had braided them in Kushina's hair. Before Kushina, she had practiced chakra control with Minato as they tried to climb the trees. On his first try, Minato had gotten half-way up the tree before falling, grabbing a branch and showering them with petals on the way down. Laughing, she had shoved the petals out of his and they had laid under the tree, watching the marmalade sunset. Mikoto doubts that Kushina or Minato would want to sit with in the pinkish shade of the trees now. She hasn't actually talked for real to them in over a year now. Whenever Minato sees her, he looks hurt; Kushina just looks furious. When Fugaku walks towards her and asks if he can sit, she says yes and puts her head on his shoulder. He isn't Minato or Kushina, but when he stops scowling for a minute, Mikoto can admit his face is very nice to look at.

Mikoto avoids Kushina. She does not understand why the elders dislike her until the day her eyes turn as red as Kushina's hair. Then, they tell her of everything: Madara, the Kyubi, their clan's dark legacy, and the girl with the hair of blood and flames that carries a demon. It is best to stay away from the demon-girl of fire, they say; it is such that the Kyubi has always proven disastrous for their clan. It is then that Mikoto remembers Kushina is fire. Well, if Kushina is fire and Mikoto is a breeze, she will feed the fire. She has been away from it too long that if she holds back anymore she will become a raging gale.


End file.
